The Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy has existed since 1978, founded by Professor Robert Hahn at Brandeis University under the name of "The Greater Boston Colloquium for Ancient Philosophy." Initially it functioned as a loose coalition of three or four universities in the Boston area, which each sponsored a lecture or two in the series. Scholars who happened to be visiting the area from other parts of the U.S. or abroad delivered impromptu lectures on topics of interest to local philosophers and classicists.

In 1984 the Colloquium underwent a 'sea-change' with an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities of substantial funding over a three-year period for the so-called 'Greater Boston Project'. The proposal was written by John Cleary and funded by the Division of Education at the NEH for the purpose of promoting undergraduate education in classics and ancient philosophy through lectures, seminars and class visits by leading international scholars in the field. Since the primary purpose of the project was the promotion of education rather than scholarship, the NEH did not provide any money for scholarly publications. But the Academic Vice President at Boston College generously provided funding for the publication of Proceedings, which have been published annually since 1985.

From 1983 to 1988 the administration of the whole program was located at BC because John Cleary was the Director of BACAP. He was also the founding editor of the series of Proceedings, and edited the first three volumes as sole editor, along with volume seven. Dan Shartin served as co-editor for volumes four to six, while William Wians served as co-editor for volumes eight through 12. Gary Gurtler, S.J. has been the co-editor for volumes 13 and 14 and onwards along with John Cleary as general editor.

The Proceedings publishes both papers and commentaries, so as to capture the dialogical spirit that characterizes the meetings of the Boston Area Colloquium. The authors are encouraged to revise their presentations in the light of discussion, and their papers are sent to external referees for peer review. Although the BACAP Proceedings contains only papers invited for presentation to the Colloquium, publication is not guaranteed and every author must submit to peer review.

Since its inception in 1985, the BACAP Proceedings has been prepared in the form of camera-ready copy in the Philosophy department at BX with financial support being provided exclusively by the University. Each volume up to and including volume 12 had been published through a co-publication agreement with University Press of America, Lanham (MD). From volume 13 onwards the series has been and will continue to be published by E.J. Brill of Leiden in the Netherlands. Copies of the Proceedings can be ordered directly from the publishers, except for volumes one and two which are now out of print. A limited number of back-issues are available from our BACAP address at BC. If you would like more information about past volumes or to order copies, see contact information above.